It couldn't last

Neroli
Charles Tongue
Thu 4 Dec 2008 16:23
17:23.42N 36:45.17W
It couldn't last.............
When we signed off yesterday we were hissing along with our spinnaker up, making good speed in the right direction. We changed down to our tradewind rig in the early hours and then, with an electric storm flashing away to the north of us, the wind backed and we reduced sail to the genoa alone. Poor Lou was winded when a flying fish hit her in the chest. We have had several on the deck and they make a terrible smell but this is the first time any of us have been hit by one!
At 0700, local time, this morning Graham had just taken over the watch from Lou when the wind suddenly backed through 120 degrees increased dramatically and a torrential downpour began. It was soon all hands on deck as we took in our last remaining sail and were still doing over 8 knots downwind and in a SE direction. All would have been fine had it not been that our light weather genoa (MPG)  was furled (and secured with a sail tie) from our bowsprit. The wind was so strong that it opened the furling above and below the sail tie and flogged itself almost fully open, placing an enormous strain on the rig. By the the wind had peaked at 52 knots (Force 10), the seas built incredibly quickly but the surface was flattened smooth by the torrential rain despite the streaks of spume blowing across the wave caps. It was clearly unsafe to work on the foredeck in such conditions, let alone try to tame a sail not far short of the size of a tennis court and we debated the options open to us . We even considered undoing the halyard, allowing it to run through the sheave at the top of the mast and then cut the whole sail and halyard free. After about an hour however the wind began to abate and once down to about Force 6 Graham and Henry managed to put two lines around the furling gear at  the tack of the sail; one to stop it flying away from us and the second, attached to a winch in the cockpit to pull the sail inboard. As Lou lowered the halyard Charlie winched the sail in and held Neroli dead downwind and Henry and Graham used all their strength to manhandle the sail onto the deck. This enabled Graham to undo the shackle at the tack and bundle the sail down below. Amazingly. having flogged itself hard for an hour we think the sail is not seriously damaged.
This has taught us some lessons and made all of us realise that nothing can be taken for granted out here. Later on we heard that one of the old Challenger Yachts (Steel - 70ft) had experienced similar conditions but 60 mph winds. The incident left us without a stitch of dry clothing and exhausted. Neroli is also pretty wet from sails, crew and the incredible tropical rainfall but we will resolve all of that pretty quickly. The crew all felt better after a hot coffee laced with whisky! The weather is still pretty grim with low scudding cloud. rain showers and big seas but the wind strength is manageable and we are making good progress again. Our track on the chartplotter shows that we made a 10 mile detour to the SE before we were able to get back on course.
In all this excitement we hardly took note of the fact that we managed our best days run (153 miles), crossed the halfway point to St Lucia and put back the ships clocks another hour so we are two hours behind you in the UK.
Amazingly, thanks to the wonders of modern science Charlie and Henry were able to speak on the sat - phone to Francoise and Lauren back in Salisbury about important matters.
Anyway we are all fine but ready for more settled weather and some sunshine. 
 
Thursday 04.12.08 16.00